OFFICER GETS 8 MONTHS BEHIND BARS

San Diego 
A federal judge sentenced a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer to eight months in prison Friday, calling the officer’s crimes of wire fraud and concealment of a fugitive “an abomination.”

Thomas Silva, 33, pleaded guilty in October to insurance fraud and to allowing his brother-in-law to illegally enter the U.S.

“You embarrassed the United States,” Judge Anthony Battaglia told Silva. “The gravity of the crime is significant because of the role you’re in.”

The judge sentenced Silva to the minimum time set by federal guidelines and rejected the defense’s request to hold him under house arrest. Silva had faced up to 14 months in prison.

Silva was staffing a SENTRI inspection station at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in April when his brother-in-law, Julio Cesar Landaverde Valdez, came through with two others in a car.

Valdez, a convicted human smuggler, had walked away from a halfway house. Silva also entered the wrong vehicle information when his brother-in-law passed through, further concealing the crime, prosecutors said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Mazza said just a month earlier Silva used a confidential computer system to access his brother-in-law’s status, showing that he was a fugitive.

Marcel Stewart, Silva’s defense attorney, told the judge that his client has no prior criminal history and was caught in a difficult situation with a family member.

Silva was honorably discharged from the National Guard and served with Customs and Border Protection for 10 years. He was ordered to submit a signed letter of resignation to the agency as a condition of his plea agreement.

Silva, who has remained free under GPS supervision during the proceedings, has been taking college classes and looking for a job since his arrest, his attorney said.

Silva apologized to the judge while his family listened from the front row of the courtroom.

“Ever since I was 17, I’ve worn the uniform of the U.S. on either my chest or arm,” he said. “Some mistakes I’ve done pretty much disgraced that, and I’m sorry for that. I can’t take it back, and I wish I could.”

Silva was ordered to self-surrender to prison next month.

He also pleaded guilty to wire fraud for falsely reporting that his truck had been stolen.

When investigators served the search warrant on his Chula Vista home after his arrest, they found $20,000 in $100 bills stashed in an electrical panel in a guest room, Mazza said.

Silva has agreed to forfeit the cash, some of which will be used to pay the $7,300 in restitution to Farmers Insurance.